CVE-2022-50261 drm/sti: Fix return type of sti_{dvo,hda,hdmi}_connector_mode_valid()
Incorrect function return types in STI DRM drivers cause kernel panics when Control Flow Integrity is enabled, leading to denial of service.
- Exploited in the wild
- Not known
- Login needed
- Any signed-in user
- Attackable
- Local or same network only
- Victim action needed
- Not needed
- Fix
- Available
What is CVE-2022-50261?
CVE-2022-50261 is a medium-severity vulnerability in Linux kernel, published on 15 Sep 2025. It can only be exploited from the same machine or local network, with no action from the victim.
Official description
In the Linux kernel, the following vulnerability has been resolved:
drm/sti: Fix return type of sti_{dvo,hda,hdmi}_connector_mode_valid()
With clang's kernel control flow integrity (kCFI, CONFIG_CFI_CLANG), indirect call targets are validated against the expected function pointer prototype to make sure the call target is valid to help mitigate ROP attacks. If they are not identical, there is a failure at run time, which manifests as either a kernel panic or thread getting killed. A proposed warning in clang aims to catch these at compile time, which reveals:
drivers/gpu/drm/sti/sti_hda.c:637:16: error: incompatible function pointer types initializing 'enum drm_mode_status (*)(struct drm_connector *, struct drm_display_mode *)' with an expression of type 'int (struct drm_connector *, struct drm_display_mode *)' [-Werror,-Wincompatible-function-pointer-types-strict] .mode_valid = sti_hda_connector_mode_valid, ^~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ drivers/gpu/drm/sti/sti_dvo.c:376:16: error: incompatible function pointer types initializing 'enum drm_mode_status (*)(struct drm_connector *, struct drm_display_mode *)' with an expression of type 'int (struct drm_connector *, struct drm_display_mode *)' [-Werror,-Wincompatible-function-pointer-types-strict] .mode_valid = sti_dvo_connector_mode_valid, ^~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ drivers/gpu/drm/sti/sti_hdmi.c:1035:16: error: incompatible function pointer types initializing 'enum drm_mode_status (*)(struct drm_connector *, struct drm_display_mode *)' with an expression of type 'int (struct drm_connector *, struct drm_display_mode *)' [-Werror,-Wincompatible-function-pointer-types-strict] .mode_valid = sti_hdmi_connector_mode_valid, ^~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
->mode_valid() in 'struct drm_connector_helper_funcs' expects a return type of 'enum drm_mode_status', not 'int'. Adjust the return type of sti_{dvo,hda,hdmi}_connector_mode_valid() to match the prototype's to resolve the warning and CFI failure.
Which versions are affected by CVE-2022-50261?
It affects 1 product.
Products include Linux kernel.
How do I fix CVE-2022-50261?
Apply the vendor's patch.
Is CVE-2022-50261 being exploited?
There is no known exploitation of CVE-2022-50261 in the wild and no public exploit code.
Other vulnerabilities in Linux kernel
Sources
Also known as DEBIAN-CVE-2022-50261, GHSA-578g-xfmh-7xmp, UBUNTU-CVE-2022-50261.